150 The Scottish Naturalist. 



there is an old vertebra of what I take to be a Sperm whale in 

 the University library, St. Andrews, where I believe it has long 

 been preserved. This bone, I am inclined to' think, from what 

 little I can learn about it, is a relic of Foster's whale, — the ani- 

 mal from which he obtained the Coromila he sent to Sibbald. 

 May it not also have belonged to the whale figured by Sibbald 

 on the same plate, although stated by another to be a whale 

 stranded at Monifieth. Be this as it may, Figs. 2 and 3 appear 

 to me to be evidently a copy of a drawing taken of the animal 

 itself — not made from recollection — by some competent ob- 

 server, as we may at any rate suppose Foster, from his position, 

 to have been. The long and rather attenuated appearance of 

 the snout, was probably caused by the position in which the ani 

 mal lay. For it has to be borne in mind that all large whales 

 when stranded are very apt, from their own weight and other 

 causes, to present a misshapen appearance. The single blow- 

 hole, its italic 5 like shape and position toward one side of the 

 truncated snout, are all admirably represented on this, perhaps, 

 the oldest drawing in existence, if not the first made, of a 

 Cachalot, showing the correct shape and position of this orifice. 

 Nearly all the old authors were mistaken both as to the shape 

 and position on the head of the blow-hole of this Cetacean. As 

 we have already seen, Linnaeus places it at the neck. Schreben 

 and others represent it as circular. Hunter 2 says it is trans- 

 verse. F. Cuvier says semi-circular. Schwediawer,3 however, 

 points out, in 1783, that the " spout" in this whale was on the 

 very anterior edge of the head, bending obliquely to the left 

 side. Colnett, 4 Huggins, 5 Beale,& and Bennett, / give good 

 figures of the Cachalot ; but these were all taken, I presume, 

 when the animals were newly killed, and still floating in the 

 water. The old vertebra above noticed is, I consider, the 

 tenth dorsal of a youngish Cachalot. It has been a good deal 

 knocked about, and exhibits marks of bad usage. Its present 

 size is: — length of centrum, 6}i inches ; total breadth over the 

 transverse processes, 19 inches; total height, 22 inches ; the 

 neural spine is incomplete at the upper end, and may have 

 been originally an inch or two longer. For comparison I 



1 Saugthiere. 2 Phil. Trans. 1787. 3 Phil. Trans. 1783. -J-Voy. Sou. Atlantic. 

 5 and 6 Sperm Whales. 7 Whal. Voyage. 



